PESHAWAR News: CM KP Approves First Ever Urban Policy 2030

[LRE-Azan]

PESHAWAR: Mahmood Khan, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, approved the province’s Urban Policy 2030, and its accompanying action plan on Wednesday.


He claimed that the initiative would promote the growth of smart cities and guarantee the well-organized use and management of land to meet the needs of urban centers.

Additionally, he gave his permission to the master plans for the city of Mardan, the towns of Wana in the tribal district of South Waziristan, and Miranshah and Mirali in the tribal region of North Waziristan.

According to a press release, he said at the second meeting of the Land Use and Building Control Council that the province cannot afford any delay or neglect to this effect.

The chief minister declared that KP was the first province to have an urban policy as he urged the efficient execution of master plans and gave officials 3 months to develop a “pragmatic implementation system”.

Furthermore, the Urban Policy and Planning Unit and Sub-National Governance Programme produced the policy after more than a year of deliberation and input from local and international specialists.

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The details show that the policy’s aims would be reviewed every 2 years until 2030, at which point they would be developed for a “rolling basis” of 3 to 5 years.

It was also stated that the policy applied to all urban area development agencies and those operating under the KP Tourism Act.

Besides, it states that the urban strategy would support the growth of smart cities while taking into account its social, environmental, and gender implications.

According to the statement, city administrators will have the freedom to devise their city administration plans in line with the demands and requirements of their locations.

Similarly, key elements of the urban policy, according to the statement, include land use and floor area planning, affordable housing, economic and real estate development, municipal services and livability, traffic and mobility ease, tourism in urban areas and the northern zone, institutional capacity building to implement policy effectively, and strategic city management planning.

According to officials, master plans for 16 additional cities in the province would be available by March, but those for Mardan, Wana, Miranshah, and Mirali had already been finalized.